Football

ah. sorry!

Was right in front of us. Having watched the first half at a distance as everything happened at the other end of the pitch, it was rather nice to have the game brought to us 30 seconds after the restart. It was also rather pleasant to be able to tell everyone who returned late from half time and pushed past us that they had missed a very special goal.

Not sure that the number 35 impeded the goalkeeper. It looks as if the goalkeeper was wrongfooted and down before he made contact. Still, good blocking move.

28 seconds to be precise. Great stuff and serves them right for being late. Hope the day was good of course the win makes it all the more better. Was the reaction to Willian getting taken off in the stands the same as me....WTF!! felt sorry for him he played well looked like scoring and I remember in last year semis when he scored he was so happy his family were over from brazil to see it.

The substitutions were not so surprising. Morata for Giroud was obvious and worked. Pedro for Willian hardly surprising and it left an in form Hazard on the pitch. Bakayoko for Fabregas was again, explicable. The only question was the order; Bakayoko for Willian and Pedro for Fabregas. But this is something that Conte has done before many times. A two step like for like. First step is more cautious and the second more attacking.

I was pleased that he shook things up earlier on than he sometimes has.

Hughes did his earlier and left four carded players on the pitch. Romeu was a very lucky chap as he could easily have picked up a few more yellows. Romeu is a player that I have always liked. He has toughened up considerably since leaving Chelsea and become a bit of amidfield enforcer. My concern is that Hughes will turn him into a snide thug. But then, like Ryan Bertrand, he needs to move on. Too good a player for the Championship.

yeah I see what you mean I like Willian and was disapointed for him on a personal level.
Romeu and Bertrand will deff move on.
The final will be tough Jose knows how to win finals. The mind games will start soon

Would prefer to lose to ManU in the final than Tottenham. Mind you, I would have preferred to lose to Southampton in the semi than ManU in the final.

We'll lose, Jose doesn't come away from Wembley with a runners-up medal... invoking the curse of Mike C

I honestly can’t see us beating Man Utd in a final.

Chuffed with yesterday’s win. Both strikers on the scoresheet as well.

What a waste of a cup final with the two wankiest teams in England.
Such a shame. I'll have to find something else to do that day

Mike. It's the Royal Wedding so your day is sorted. Street party?

Oh fuck me. May as well see if I can leave the country.

Presumably the BBC won't be showing the Cup Final.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/23/jurgen-klopp-liverpool-champions-league-roma-mo-salah-brexit

Klopp should be an expert on leaving Europe.

Ah, the Cup Final is at the traditional time of 5:30 pm to help those travelling down from Manchester to get home at a reasonable hour. Perhaps they could pop to Windsor in the morning.

Not sure I follow?

I haven't seen much commentary on the fact Wenger's greatest success (the Invincibles) came the same season Abramovich's money changed English football forever.

I guess that impact was felt by not being able to compete financially for the top players (with Chelsea, United and City more latterly), but also by the trend of super clubs stockpiling their academies and reserves with talent. Players Wenger might once have bought cheaply in their early twenties will these days be on their third or fourth loan spell from City or Chelsea.

My mistake, you didn't even qualify for Europe last season.

https://twitter.com/MundialMag/status/988198449551171584

But before then, no sides could compete with man United and Arsenal because of their superior financial position. What Abramovich's money did was to allow supporters of other clubs to believe that they could compete with those two sides. Now there are six clubs always in contention rather than two and, as Leicester have shown, other sides can break in asa well.

Nothing currently being written about the "invincibles" mentions how resoundingly they were beaten in the Champion's League that year.

If anything, Arsenal's plateauing since then has been caused more by the Board's decision to attempt to break even despite the stadium move. They have two of the weatlthiest owners in the league. Hardly the stuff of poverty.

Well you're right of course, the Portuguese super liga is also pretty interesting, with Benfica losing 0-1 to Porto last Sunday.

But of the Big 5 leagues Serie A is the only one where the champion isn't already known or a formality, so yes right now it is the only league that's worth watching. If you think it's like Scotland then I can assume you haven't watched much Serie A or SPL this season.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/23/andres-iniesta-begins-barcelona-goodbye-as-an-era-draws-to-a-close

This Sid Lowe article on Iniesta is really good.

couldn't sleep, up early

just wanted to say good luck to all those english teams in the sem finals of the european cup
liverpool have a stiff task ahead of them, i'm not expcting anything now
happy to have got this far, getting knocked out by roma won't be half as annoying as being knocked out by an english team

lets hope for another one of those magical european bus trashing nights at anfield

Yeah nerves starting to creep in now. It's been too long since we were at this stage. I expect us to go out at this round but it was great while it lasted.
I can see them nicking an away goal making for an impossible task in Rome.

just wanted to say good luck to all those english teams in the sem finals of the european cup

If you’re going to play the humble card than you shouldn’t start like this you dick-i.